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Jonah & Ruth: Lessons for Our Fractured World

Led By: Bill Prestwood

THE BOOKS — A comedy, a romance, both with Old Testament lessons for today!

Jonah shows the original readers of the book, as well as us, what a picture of their bigotry and hatred of foreigners and enemies looks like to God. Ruth shows what life lived in performing deeds of hesed looks like to us and to God.

JONAH – The book of Jonah uses the character of an outrageous excuse of a prophet to show the leaders and people of Judah just how foolish they looked with their insistence on isolationism and the exclusion of “the other.” It asks the question “If God loves the outsider, shouldn’t we?”  

4 Sessions

– What Kind of Bible Story is This?
– The Adventures of Jonah
– Nineveh at Last!
– God Instructs God’s People

 RUTH –  The book of Ruth is an idealized story of what life would look like if God’s people treated each other with His loving-kindness—insiders and outsiders alike. A key understanding in Ruth is that God uses these acts of the loving-kindness of people to demonstrate that which God gives to all, whether they realize it or not.

5 Sessions

– Gathering our Tools
– From Famine to Barley Harvest
– Coming Alive!
– Naomi has a Plan!
-The Happy Ending